120 brownie cam help

[Luke_H]

Hi Luke - have you considered buying 620 film? You can get it here in various speeds, color or B&W. This place has a great reputation, though I've not yet tried it for my old Duaflex.

Nobody makes true 620 though.. it's 120 spools that have been plugged in the middle and cut around the edges. It won't necessarily fit into a 620 camera with close tollerances like perhaps the Duaflex Kodaks.

I pay $1.29 for a roll of b&w 120 film from Freestyle Photo, so it's worth my while to just reroll it onto a 620 spool. It's really not difficult.. (After you figure out the first time what to do.)

 

[terri]

Sure! Suit yourself - we all do. The films available here include Tmax and TriX which I enjoy, so it's worth it to me in that regard as well as not having to respool.

 

[lathamemmons]

wow luke i love the whole switched lens thing it looks like your useing a lens baby.
so do you just flipp the lens over?

 

[Luke_H]

Yeah, the bakelite is a bit fragile, but using a phillips screwdriver, you can take the screws out of the front silver plate and remove/clean the viewfinder and the lenses. If you flip it, you get the lensbaby effect. It seems more interesting than the Holga to me.

Terri, I understand totally. I've just been warned by others that it's not true 620 film. They grind plastic 120 spools down to emulate the original 620 size and I think they mention no guarantee that they would fit in all cameras.

The Brownie Hawkeye Flash and my Argus Super 75 can both hold 120 spools, so it's not an issue there. But I do have several 620 cameras sitting at home that I need to use more often.

 

[lathamemmons]

what speed of film do you use?

 

[Luke_H]

The color stuff is 160 speed, either Kodak Portra NC or Fuji NC160... 400 speed like Tmax 400 is almost too fast for daylight, outdoors. I use 100 speed Arista EDU (fomapan 100) in it now. But 100-400 will work during the day, outside. Just a guesstimate, but it seems like the fstop is around f13 and shutter is about 1/75th. And it varies by camera as to how fast the shutter is after all these years.

Everything I've put through it has turned out OK though.

 

[lathamemmons]

so tmax 100 should do ok on a sunny day

 

[mysteryscribe]

there are a couple of articles somewhere on the net about how to make the brownie haweye a x sync for strobe.

 

[lathamemmons]

yea i seen those.
im thinking about making a tripod plate thing to fit the flash screw hole

 

[mysteryscribe]

Thats a good idea to

 

[lathamemmons]

ok i got some tmax 120 on the way

 

[burtharrris]

My girlfriend's dad collects cameras, and actually just gave me a Brownie Hawkeye Flash, in the original box, with all the flashbulbs. She bought me two rolls of 620. I'm too nervous to use it, haha.

Anyway, I figure it's fixed focus: whats the closest focusing distance?

And I assume its auto-exposure: is it always set for daylight balance? I guess if I ever use it indoors I need the flash?

 

[Karalee]

Shutterspeed is set around 1/30th of a second I believe on the bhf, so yes use a flash if you can indoors, or use the bulb setting. I have 2, on both of mine I can put a regular roll of 120 on the top, and keep the 620 spool as the take up spool.

 

[mysteryscribe]

not that it makes the slightest big of difference but I think the ss is 1/50... the reason is kodak set most of its. brownies there to keep the camera shake down a little. I seems to work since picture with those things are reasonably solid looking from the day.

 

[Karalee]

yes sorry your right its 1/45